Redding firefighters free kitten from rusty pipe

City of Redding maintenance workers Ralph White and Gary Brown help Redding firefighters Mike Anderson and John Clark, behind camera, rescue a kitten that was found this morning stuck in a rusted steel pipe.

Piper was rescued from a rusty pipe by Redding firefighters.

Redding firefighters helped rescue a kitten Wednesday morning after it was found stuck in a rusty pipe.

"I don't know how she got in there," said John Clark, an engineer for the Redding Fire Department.

Peering down the seven-foot section of 2½-inch diameter pipe, Clark said he could see the kitten's legs tucked tightly underneath it. The pipe was barely bigger than the young female cat's head and its face was about a foot and a half from an end of the pipe.

A man had dropped the pipe off at the Fire Station No. 4 on South Bonnyview Road just before Clark and Captain Mike Anderson went on duty Wednesday.

The man, who declined to give his name to firefighters, had been doing some work outside his parent's south Redding home and kept hearing the cries of a kitten in distress, said Steve Howard, a Redding Fire captain. He found they were coming from the pipe, which was in the yard, and he brought it into the fire station figuring firefighters might be able to free the cat.

While the fire department has all sorts of tools for cutting apart wrecked cars or prying into burning buildings, Anderson said they didn't have a tool tender enough to cut the kitten out of its metal confines.

So they called the city of Redding maintenance shop for help. Soon Ralph White and Gary Brown, workers for the city, were at the station with a hand-cranked pipe cutter.

After about three minutes of cutting, the kitten was free.

Anderson said the kitten was filthy and slow moving once out of the pipe.

"We thought it was injured, but it was just rust," Anderson said.

While Anderson said he thought of naming the kitten Rustine, he said his wife suggested Piper and he felt it was more fitting.

Clark videotaped the rescue and posted it on YouTube. Anderson gave Piper to Tracey Leong, a KRCR reporter, who said she was going to see whether anyone in at the station wanted her.

While Clark and Anderson said they've responded to their share of cats stuck in trees, they said this was the first they had helped free from a pipe.

Anderson did deal with a dog in a similar predicament years back, although the pipe was only stuck on the animal's head.

"We just pulled back on its ears and the pipe slid right off," Anderson said.